


Synth

by RunningErrands



Series: Sterek in the Fallout Universe [3]
Category: Fallout 4, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bigotry, M/M, Synth, are synths their own race?, kind of?, racism?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5629912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunningErrands/pseuds/RunningErrands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt:</p><p>So what if either Stiles or Derek is in the Brotherhood of Steel, and they find out that the other was replaced by a synth (or was a synth from the beginning)? Then whoever is in the BOS must decide what to do with that information, since we know that the BOS is highly against synths and all!  -daiowl</p>
            </blockquote>





	Synth

Living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is a struggle for everyone involved. Living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland when you’re a Brother of Steel is arguably less of a struggle. That is of course, unless your boyfriend was completely distrustful of the Brotherhood of Steel and attempts to persuade you to leave at any chance he gets.

            Derek had joined the Brotherhood of Steel almost immediately after the death of his sister Laura at the hands of his uncle Peter. He had killed Peter for what he had done, only to find that his uncle was an institute synth. He’d been replaced, and Derek had no clue until his sister had died. He’d started wandering the Captial Wasteland, killing whatever deserved it in order to release his anger.  

            He had been stuck in an abandoned old book store, completely filled with feral ghouls when he’d first seen the Brotherhood. They had stormed in wearing their power armor and sending red laser beams arcing through the old bookshelves. Sara Lyons had found him and convinced him to join. It wasn’t long after that that Sara Lyons was made Elder Lyons, and in no time at all, Elder Lyons had fallen in battle. Enter Arthur Maxon. He had reunited the Brotherhood with their outcasts, and was made an Elder at the tender age of sixteen. At the time, Derek had only been twenty, so when five years later, Elder Maxon asked for volunteers to make their way to the Boston Commonwealth, Derek had eagerly volunteered, ready to get out of the shit hole that was the Capital Wasteland.

            It was Derek’s second patrol in the Commonwealth where he met Stiles. Derek had been sent to clear an old all of raiders, and the patrol went as smoothly as normal, only with a bit of a bonus at the end. He found Stiles tucked away, minutes from death in the raider’s hideout. The Paladin Derek was supposed to be listening to had suggested that Derek leave him, saying that he wasn’t likely to live after having spent such quality time with raiders, but Derek had taken Stiles back to the Prydwen anyways. Elder Maxon had told Derek that he couldn’t have a random young man on the ship, due to obvious security reasons, but he gave Derek a sort of leave of absence, claiming that after five years of good work, he deserved it anyways.

            Derek had moved to Diamond City for a little bit, knowing that the city was most likely free of synths due to the city’s strict parameters against all things not perfectly human. It took a few days, but Stiles woke up eventually. It was a rocky start at first, but they warmed up to each other, starting to travel around the Commonwealth together after Stiles had healed, mostly helping small settlements fortify their homes against attacks.

            Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and soon Derek was being called back to the Brotherhood. Stiles had not reacted well when Derek finally told him that he had to go back to duty. In fact, they had had an all out screaming match, ending up with Stiles leaving to go stay at his friend Scott’s settlement outside of the city. Stiles had come back the next day though and apologized, acknowledging that the Brotherhood was where Derek needed to be. That was the first time they kissed.

            Derek set up a deal with Elder Maxon. He would work with the Brotherhood for four weeks, and then he’d take a week off with Stiles. It worked well until Derek came home one day to an empty house.

            The couple lived in Diamond City, so it wasn’t too far fetched that Stiles would be out of the house, possibly running errands. He usually would stay at the house on the days that Derek would return, but it was easy to forget when you had as much going on as Stiles.

            Derek only started to worry when two days later, Stiles still had not appeared at the house. He asked his neighbors, the local shop owners, the security, and even the mayor, but nobody had seen Stiles. Derek was readying himself to leave Diamond City and look for his lover when Stiles walked in the door, face white as a sheet.

            “Stiles?” Derek asked, rushing to his side. “Where have you been? I thought I was going to have to go out and find you!”

            “I…I was just out.” Stiles shook his head and leaned into Derek. “I missed you.”

            “I missed you too. You don’t look very healthy. You should sit down.” Derek’s voice held nothing but concern.

            Stiles simply nodded and sat on their bed, before twisting to the side and falling on his back on the mattress. He closed his eyes and was asleep almost immediately.

            Derek would have laughed if he weren’t so worried about Stiles. He laid down next to Stiles and wrapped his arm around the lithe man’s waist., determined to have a talk with Stiles the next day.

           

 

            Derek woke up the next day to an empty bed. He looked around franticly, worried that Stiles was gone again, but relaxed when he spotted Stiles making food. Derek smiled at Stiles, who seemed to be back to normal, humming and dancing while he cooked, his face no longer the unhealthy pallor he had seen the night before.

            Derek wrapped his arms around his pillow, fidgeting to get comfortable where he could watch Stiles cook, but paused when he felt his arm brush cold plastic. Derek reached under Stiles’ pillow and pulled out a Holotape. It just said one work on the label. Railroad.

            “Stiles?” Derek frowned, turning the holotape over. “What is this?”

            Stiles froze and turned, eyes immediately going to the holotape in Derek’s hand. “Um. Derek, I-“

            “Is this from the railroad?” Derek asked lowly. “The same railroad that has been fighting to help synths escape the institute? The same railroad that is helping more synths to populate the Commonwealth?” Derek was scowling and he knew it. Stiles knew that these Railroad people were hindering the work of the Brotherhood of Steel!  
            “Derek, calm down.” Stiles reached out to take the holotape from Derek, but Derek pulled it toward himself, causing Stiles to frown as well. “That’s mine. It’sd not for you to listen to.”

            “So you’re keeping secrets from me too?” Derek asked, scowl deepening. “I don’t hide things from you Stiles, so why should you hide things from me?”

            Stiles had the decency to look at least a little bit guilty.

            “I’m sorry Derek. I’ll tell you eventually, but right now is not the time.” Stiles begged. “I promise I’ll tell you, okay?”

            “Are you working for the Railroad?” Derek asked, looking Stiles in the eye.

            “No.” Stiles swore, looking Derek in the eye.   “I promise that I’m not working for the Railroad Derek. Just please give me the holotape back.” He pleaded.

            Derek reluctantly handed Stiles the holotape.

            “Thank you.” Stiles pressed a kiss to Derek’s forehead, and the two let it be.

 

 

            Fifteen weeks later, Derek walked into the house to find Stiles talking with a Railroad agent.

            Derek blew up, ordering the agent out and refusing to look at Stiles until he explained. After an hour of Stiles pleading with Derek, Stiles finally cracked.

            “Damn it Derek! I’m a synth, okay?” Stiles whispered into his pillow.

            Derek froze. He had thought of so many things it could have been, but that was not one that had gone through his mind. Derek stood from his chair in a haze, reaching for his coat.

            Stiles cried, pulling on Derek’s elbow, attempting to get him to stay with him. “I can explain. You can’t just leave me Derek.”

            Derek walked out the door, not looking back to see the sobbing mess he was leaving behind.

 

 

            Derek hadn’t thought that going back to work with the Brotherhood after that would be any different, but he found that it was. His brothers would make little comments about how synths were ruining the commonwealth and they should all die, or how if they found out that one of their friends was a synth, they would kill them on the spot. It grated at him, knowing that he might have said something along those lines weeks ago, but now, he knew it wasn’t true. He couldn’t have killed Stiles no matter if Stiles had told Derek that he was running the institute all by himself.

            The four weeks passed like normal, and at the fifth week, Derek was approached by Elder Maxon.

            “I want you to take a month off.” Elder Maxon told him simply. “Everyone on this ship has noticed that your head isn’t in any of your patrols. In the report from your last one, it says that you almost left a scribe behind. I can’t have my men operating at half capacity. Take a month and figure it out, whatever it is. Then when you come back, you had better have your mind where it belongs.”

            Derek took his things and sat on the Prydwen’s exit ramp, thinking. He didn’t have anywhere to go that was guaranteed to be Stiles-free. Everywhere he had ever been in the Commonwealth, he had gone with Stiles.

            Derek ended up at a bar in Goodneighbor, just about the trashiest little place in the Commonwealth. He had figured that Stiles wouldn’t go to such a place, but he was proven wrong when he sat at the bar only to look to his left and see Stiles looking at him in shock.

            “Stiles…” The name slipped from Derek’s mouth on its own.

            Stiles pursed his lips and downed the rest of his drink, gathering his things to leave. He had just hopped off of his bar stool when Derek’s hand fell on his shoulder.

            “Wait. I need to talk to you.” Derek said quietly.

            Stiles pulled away and kept walking.

            Derek followed Stiles quite blatantly.

            “Stiles. I need to talk to you. Stop ignoring me. This is important.” Derek was fed up and eventually put both hands on Stiles’ shoulders, spinning him so that Stiles was facing him.

            “Great. You caught me. Now what? Are you going to kill me? Or maybe you’ll give me to your brothers so that they can try to interrogate me. Wouldn’t that be a great bonding activity?” He grumbled dryly. “Honestly, I don’t give a fuck anymore Derek. Kill me if you want.”

            “I want to leave the Brotherhood.” Derek blurted out.

            “What?” Stiles asked, obviously taken aback.

            “I want to leave the Brotherhood. I never should have left you. I should have been on your side the entire time.” Derek let his head fall on Stiles’ shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

            “I’ve been a synth since before we met.” Stiles offered quietly. “I wasn’t hiding it from you. I guess I escaped from the institute and the Railroad helped me to forget my memories of the institute and to change how I looked. They came back a couple weeks ago and they were asking my permission to root around in my memories to try and find a way through the institute.”

            “I don’t care if you’ve been helping them…I…we, can go somewhere else. We can go to the Capital Wasteland where I grew up. Whatever we need to do.” Derek promised. “I’m sorry.” He whispered again.

            “Derek…” Tears filled Stiles’ eyes. “They want to erase my memory and remake my face again. They said that now that I know I’m a synth I’m in more danger.”

            Derek froze.

            “I don’t want to, but I don’t think I have any other options.” Stiles looked away. “If I don’t, the institute will come after me.”

            “Then we’ll leave the Commonwealth. There are other places in the world that the Institute will have a heck of a time trying to reach. In the Capital Wasteland, nobody even knew what a synth was.” Derek explained.

            “That was years ago that you were there Derek.” Stiles sighed. “Plus we can’t exactly just fly on over there in one of the Brotherhood ships. It would take weeks to get there.”

            “I don’t care. I’m not losing you.” Derek argued, pressing his lips to Stiles. “I love you.”

            Stiles’ eyes watered. It was the first time that Derek had ever said it to him.

            “Ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> So here's another prompt fic in the fallout universe! I actually had to get on the game and poke around the Prydwen, talking to members of the brotherhood of steel to write this one! (I'm more of a railroad/minutemen kind of person.) It was still a blast to write! I hope you enjoyed reading!
> 
> Also! Find me on tumblr at http://sterekrunningerrands.tumblr.com/


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